Knowledge Management in Software Development

Knowledge Management in
Software Development
Karsten Jahn
PhD Defence
November 29, 2012

Knowledge Management
Knowledge management enables the knowledge sharing
between people, where one person transfers their
knowledge to another one.

Support:
• Knowledge Management Strategy
(Hansen et al., 1999)
• Knowledge Management System
(Davenport & Prusak, 1998)
2

The KiWi Project
• Title: Knowledge in a Wiki
• Study the possibilities of a semantic wiki in
knowledge management.

3

Project Knowledge Management
• Case with business partner: Logica
– Providing IT & business solutions
– ca. 800 IT & Software specialists in DK
• Issues regarding knowledge management in the
case company
– Analyze
– Address

Research Question:
How can IT systems support knowledge management in
software development?

4

Action Design Research (ADR)
• Outlined by Sein et al. (2011)
– Method of 4 stages
• Dual process
– Support practitioners in application domain
– Forming theory to be added to body of knowledge
• Ensemble view of IT artefacts

5

Ensemble View of IT Artefacts
• Traditionally: Focus on IT artefact
• Ensemble view includes e.g.
– interaction with people
– embedding in context

7

My ADR
Data collection
fed from:
– Ensemble view
– Context
– Design process

8

Data Collection
• Documents from the case company
• Interviews
– Project visits
– Part of final evaluation phase
• Meetings
– Observations
– Participants

9

Data Analysis
• On-going process
• Important aspect of shaping process
• Feeding back into design process (stage 3)

10

ADR 1: Problem Formulation

11

Isolated Islands of Knowledge
• Strong project-orientation isolates
projects/project knowledge from one another
• Problems:
– Projects internally encapsulate knowledge, which is
created through project work (A1)
– Finding experts within company is difficult (A2)
– Employees do not share their knowledge with people
from other projects (A3)
– Documentation of project work is often inconsistent
or incomplete (A4)

12

Inadequate Bridging of Knowledge
• Bridging of the knowledge isolation is not
successfully implemented
• Problems:
– Process descriptions are too complex and
numerous (B1)
– Communication between process designers and
process executors is difficult to establish (B2)
– Documentation provided by projects is not
connected (B3)
13

ADR 2: BIE Circles
• Through constant iteration of BIE circles
– Iterative approach
– Consecutive phases
– Continuously applied
• Outcome: Design
– Based on 4 design ideas

14

Knowledge Management Strategy
Codification Personalization
• People to documents • Person to person
• Similarity-based • Goal-oriented
• Competitive strategy: • Competitive strategy:
Specialization in a Customized & unique
certain field solutions
• System support: Heavy • System support: Moderate
– Archive – Facilitate conversations
– Search

15

The Strategies
• Focus on one strategy only, reflecting the
competitive strategy.
• Utilize the other strategy to support
– In a 80-20 share

16

Layers in Organization
Problem analysis showed:
– Projects are personalized
– Management is codified

17

Design Idea 1
Supporting the two organizational layers
with different knowledge management
strategies: The management layer follows a
codification strategy and the development
layer the personalization.

18

Connecting the Layers
Project managers are part of both layers
– Reporting project status to management
– Applying knowledge from management layer in
development layer

19

Design Idea 2
Connecting the two organizational layers in
order to establish and support knowledge
sharing between them.

20

Supporting the Layers
Design Idea 3:
Utilizing a wiki in order to support the personalization
strategy within the development layer.

Design Idea 4:
Utilizing a project management system (PMS) in order
to support the codification strategy within the
management layer.
PMS

Wiki 21

Workflow Scenario

23

Final Evaluation: Settings
• User test in usability lab
– 2 test users
– 3 iterations
• Procedure
– Follow use cases
– Interview
• Focus:
– Usefulness
– Not usability

24

Final Evaluation: Results
• Poor usability
• Improved information access
• Processes easier to follow than to violate
• Systems address issues and provide solution

25

ADR 3: Reflecting and Learning
Research Question:
How can IT systems support knowledge
management in software development?

• KiWi systems support knowledge
management for case company.
• Design ideas are contribution to the
body of knowledge

26

Contribution: Design Idea 1
”Multiple strategies through layers”
• Division of problems reflects layers:
– Development → Isolated islands of knowledge
– Management → Inadequate bridging of knowledge
• Extending theory on strategies:
– Acknolowging best fitting strategy in layer
– More fine grained choice
– 2 strategies in the same organization
• Perspectives of knowledge (Alavi & Leidner, 2001)
– Context dependend
– Predominant ones differ between layers
27

”Connecting the layers”
• Addresses problems with connection:
– B2, feedback circle. Focus: People.
– B3, connected documentation. Focus: Strategies
• Aspects of knowledge management in software
development (Rus & Lindvall, 2002)
– Not equally spread in organization, yet supported
• Linking strategies to modes of knowledge creation
(Nonaka, 1994)
• Extension to Experience Factory (Basili, 1989)
– Enabling personalization
28

”Wiki for personalization”
• Addresses different problems, because
– Centralized system with easy access for everyone
– Support for collaboration and communication
• Linking personalization to informal knowledge base
(Davenport & Prusak, 1998)
• Personalized experience factory (Basili, 1989)
– Not: People to system, system to people (indirect)
– But: People through system to people (direct)
• IT support in personalization (Hansen et al., 1999)
– 20% codification
– Wiki is also: IT support to connect people
29

”Project management system for codification”
• PMS necessity for case company and many
other organizations
• Addresses problem of connecting
documentation (B3)
• Linking codification to structured knowledge
base (Davenport & Prusak, 1998)

30

Contribution: KiWi Systems
• Design ideas cannot be seen isolated only
• All problems are addressed
• Layered approach to focus on different strategies
(Hansen et al., 1999)
• Implementation to knowledge sharing approach
outlined by (Alavi & Leidner, 2001)
• Extension to experience factory (Basili, 1989)
– No separation between project work and knowledge base
• Focus on social aspects, not IT (Kautz & Thaysen, 2001)
– IT is part of social aspect

31

Thank you for your attention.

32

Data Exchange Agent

34

Project Management Application

35

Bibliography
• Maryam Alavi and Dorothy E. Leidner. Review: Knowledge Management and
Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues.
MIS Quarterly, 25(1):107-136, 2001.
• Victor R. Basili. Software Development: A Paradigm for the Future. In Proceedings
of the 13th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference
(COMPSAC'89), 1989.
• Thomas H. Davenport and L. Prusak. Working Knowledge: How Organizations
Manage What They Know. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 1998.
• Morten T. Hansen, Nitin Nohria, and Thomas Tierney. What's Your Strategy for
Managing Knowledge? Harward Business Review, 77(2):106-116, 1999.
• Karlheiz Kautz and Kim Thaysen. Knowledge, learning and IT support in a small
software company. Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(4):349-357, 2001.
• Ikujiro Nonaka. A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation.
Organization Science, 5:14-37, 1994.
• Ioana Rus and Mikael Lindvall. Knowledge Management in Software Engineering.
IEEE Software, 19(3):26-38, June 2002.
• Maung K. Sein, Ola Henfridsson, Sandeep Purao, Matti Rossi, and Rikard Lindgren.
Action Design Research. MIS Quarterly, 35(1):37-56, 2011.

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Knowledge Management in Software Development

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